The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich

Title: The Love Interest
Author: Cale Dietrich
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Release Date: May 16, 2017
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBTQIA

There is a secret organization that cultivates teenage spies. The agents are called Love Inter-ests because getting close to people destined for great power means getting valuable secrets.

Caden is a Nice: The boy next door, sculpted to physical perfection. Dylan is a Bad: The brooding, dark-souled guy, and dangerously handsome. The girl they are competing for is im-portant to the organization, and each boy will pursue her. Will she choose a Nice or the Bad?

Both Caden and Dylan are living in the outside world for the first time. They are well-trained and at the top of their games. They have to be – whoever the girl doesn’t choose will die.

What the boys don’t expect are feelings that are outside of their training. Feelings that could kill them both.


The Love Interest is definitely a different book. I really liked the concept of the spy game but I think I most enjoyed the relationship that develops between the main characters.

So the plot itself of The Love Interest was really interesting. I loved the way that a typical love triangle was used as a weapon in a way. I think that’s what I enjoyed the most. This secret organization spots someone that is destined for great things. In order to spy on them they find them an ideal mate. That way this person can report back their secrets because information is money. It’s also a way to control. In order to do this they send in a Bad and Nice. Which fit the typical personas you would see in YA novel love triangle. The kind boy next-door and the guy on the motorcycle that is mean to you but loves you. The agency itself had some flaws for me, it seemed too easy at times.

Caden’s character is a little stiff. I think it’s because he is going against who he really is. Like someone putting on clothes that don’t fit them right, so they walk around awkward and uncomfortable. There is also a part of him that is accepting of who he is. He knows he’s sliding into this fake persona because he needs to in order to survive. I had a sadness for her from the beginning. I want him to be free to be who he is.

Dylan is actually a little more complicated. I really liked him, he was easy to fall for. I think though as the story progresses you see a little different side of him. Although he seems very open and free. He still his hiding part of himself, even from himself.

Juliet the prodigy scientist is just a nice girl. Confident in her skills and has no need to show them off. She is kind of an ideal girl. Even though she becomes the odd one out.

I loved the way Caden finds himself through the his relationship with Dylan. I don’t mean Dylan was steering him but it was kind of an awakening for Caden who was just going through the motions of life before. I loved the time they spent together and even though there are heartbreaking things about it. I really found myself rooting for them.

I enjoyed The Love Interest. I really like Caden and Dylan’s story. Even though some parts of the agency fell flat for me I did really like the concept behind it.
Cale Dietrich is a YA devotee, lifelong gamer, and tragic pop punk enthusiast. He was born in Perth, grew up on the Gold Coast, and now lives in Brisbane, Australia. The Love Interest is his first novel.

Twitter : Instagram : Website



a Rafflecopter giveaway